Non-profit tweaks program, adds more money to help Flint residents behind on water bills

Genesee County United Way is expanding its program to help low-income Flint residents pay their past-due water bills. The non-profit is funneling more money to the program and is looking to raise even more.

United Way has expanded the guidelines to include customers with a household income at or below 200% of the poverty line. Those families are now eligible for a 1-to-1 dollar match; customers at or below 150% can get their dollars matched 2-to-1. The average match provided so far is $240.

Since the program launched three months ago, it’s helped about 250 households pay down past due water bills. Genesee County United Way CEO Jamie Gaskin hopes the existing money will help another 500.

But data obtained by Michigan Radio show 9,000 customers got a past due notice this spring. Almost 10% of those customers owed $1,000 or more.

“Due to limited staff and an abundance of projects/jobs to complete in Flint, city officials have made water service turn-ons a priority over shutoffs,” Moore wrote.

Credit Kaye LaFond / Michigan Radio

“For a long time many people didn’t pay their water bills through the crisis,” Gaskin said. “There was really no fear that anybody was going to come and shut you off because no one was being turned off.”

Because the shutoffs haven’t happened “at any kind of light speed” Gaskin says it’s allowed the non-profit to better keep up with the demand. But he expects that to change as shutoffs continue this summer.

There’s also an moral question looming over the entire situation, Gaskin said: Should people have to pay for water they couldn’t drink? Residents are still supposed to use a lead filter.

"At some point does one of the class action lawsuits that's working itself through the courts ultimately pay everybody back for what happened during the water crisis around water bills? I don't have an answer to that question."

“At some point does one of the class action lawsuits that’s working itself through the courts ultimately pay everybody back for what happened during the water crisis around water bills? I don’t have an answer to that question and those answers may be five and six years out,” he said.

The state has spent more than $40 million subsidizing Flint’s water bills, as part of the response to the city’s lead-tainted tap water crisis. The credits ended in February because Flint’s water quality is improving, the governor’s office said at the time.

The ACLU of Michigan and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund are calling for Flint City Council and Mayor Karen Weaver to suspend any efforts to impose liens on homes where resident's haven't paid their water bills. Those liens could eventually give the city the right to sell off the home if the debt isn't paid back.

Last month, the city of Flint sent out notices to more than 8,000 water customers. The notices advise customers to either pay their delinquent water bills, or the city will put a lien on their home. The delinquent bills amount to nearly $6 million.

The Genesee County official charged with collecting delinquent taxes says she won't collect money for tax liens placed on homes with overdue water bills. That means Flint homes with delinquent water bills will avoid the threat of foreclosure.

The Flint City Council on Wednesday passed a resolution that puts a year-long moratorium on the city’s policy of placing tax liens on properties with unpaid water bills.

Council President Kerry Nelson said he had received numerous calls to his office pleading for the move. Multiple city council members mentioned that some city residents struggle to afford Flint’s high water rates, and other residents were refusing to pay for water that could not be used without a filter.